YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU

Go home with money in your pocket

By Frank Scoblete

There is an old saying, “You can’t take it with you,” that is supposed to encourage limiting one’s greed and/or to encourage people to live for today because tomorrow, well, tomorrow you’ll be dead. So all the riches you’ve amassed are meaningless if you think they will belong to you when you are no longer you.

So go to it boys and girls! Spend away. Don’t be a Scrooge. You’ve seen the bumper stickers that state, “I’m spending my grandchildren’s inheritance!” Follow that as if it were your bible.

Certain cultures did not believe the statement “You can’t take it with you.” Note the Egyptians who buried a heck of a lot of stuff with their deceased to help these spirits maneuver through the afterlife.

In casino gambling, we have the reverse of that. There are experts who say to “quit while you’re ahead.” That sounds good except that some people will be ahead after the very first decision; a substantial number of players will indeed be ahead after the first decision.

Should these people (just like that!) quit? Sounds insane doesn’t it? Let us say you fly to Vegas or drive to your local casino in whatever area your local casino resides, and you win your first decision—do you up and head back to your house? That’s absurd; casino players want to play and that is (duh!) why they are called players.

Still it is a lot more fun to go home with some money, even if it is just some of the money you came with and not necessarily a win. Going home with empty pockets is probably the worst feeling the typical casino player can experience. You might not quit after winning your first decision; but you certainly would like to figure out some way to escape with cash in your pocket—and maybe a win too.

So here is my Scobe’s Safety System (SSS) of casino play. This is not an advantage-play system but it is a money management system designed to give you a good shot to come home with some money and perhaps even a win.

Let us say your favorite game is the slots. Coming up I’ll give you dollar amounts but you can increase or decrease the denomination of the machines you play.

Okay, you bring $500 to the casino to play quarter machines. Here are SSS recommendations:

Only play stand-alone machines; do not play progressives.

Only play one coin. That’s right, one coin.

Number 2 has probably thrown you since almost all gambling experts since the caveman days advocate playing maximum coin in order to get the better payouts on the jackpot line. In truth, those jackpot lines do not increase the overall return of the machine by very much. In a three coin machine, you are betting three times the money in order to win a couple or a few hundred dollars more. Three times the bet for a feeble increase in jackpot return? Not worth it.

By betting one coin, you increase the number of decisions you can play with your $500. Instead of just being able to play 667 decisions with that $500; you now can play 2,000 decisions if you only bet twenty-five cents per spin. Those 2,000 decisions are the minimum (and perhaps maximum) number of decisions you will experience.

Here is how you play:

You must keep track of how much you are putting in the machine. You do this simply by counting, not the actual money but the number of decisions, so 200 decisions means you’ve bet $50.

All the credits the machine gives you are kept separate. You have played 200 decisions, now you cash out. Any money you cash out after 200 decisions is put aside; not to be played again. You now have 1800 decisions left to play. If you are visiting a casino for a few days there will probably be a safe in your room. The money from that session is put away, not to be touched for the rest of the trip.

Now, you play your next 200 decisions exactly as you first did. You do this until you have played your 2,000 decisions.

Once you have finished playing 2,000 decisions you will definitely have some money with which to go home. You might even be sitting on a win.

Now what if you are ahead after 2,000 decisions? Ahead a decent amount by your standards. You might figure this is a lucky trip. Yes, you can play again. Just take 25-50 percent of your win and use that as your bankroll. The rest of the money is locked away to be taken home. Play your new bankroll just as you did your original bankroll.

If you follow my brilliant SSS as your method of playing slots, you will almost definitely go home with money and if you have a win, you can attempt to increase that win. By the way, you do not have to continue playing if you have a win; that is merely an option.

My SSS allows you to take it with you and might even allow you to quit when you’re ahead. If you go home with a win; then remember the saying I’ve written for the last quarter century: “Winning is the most fun!”

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